General Meeting 2/3/2011

In
the last few months councils across England
and Wales
have announced huge cuts to jobs and services and that equally savage cuts are
planned next spring.

Add extra paragraphs to Conference believes that:

That
cuts on the scale already seen will devastate public services across Britain, and
seriously undermine the welfare state.

Trade
unions should be central to campaigns not just to defend jobs, and oppose
compulsory redundancies, but also to protect services.

The
national union should have a strategic aim of campaigning among the membership
for the widest possible resistance to those further cuts, including support for
demonstrations and strike action.

Add new points after “Conference instructs the executive
to”:

(vi) encourage local associations to
play a full and active part in local anti-cuts campaigns;

(vii) continue to support initiatives by
the various national organisations that have developed campaigns over cuts in public services – including but not
exclusively: Keep NHS Public;Defend
Council Housing; People’s Charter, Right to Work, Coalition of Resistance; National Shops Stewards Network – while recognising
that the merits of and degree of support
given to each particular initiative will have to be judged by the national
executive.

(viii)support calls for demonstrations at this
year’s Tory and Liberal Democrat conferences and
work with others to ensure the broadest possible backing for and mobilisation
for such protests;

(ix)campaign within our own Union, the trade union movement and the TUC for the coordination of the widest possible strike
action to stop the government destruction of public
services.

Motion 35Academies and free schools

Add new points after ‘Conference notes that’

6. The
publication of Lord Hill’s letter of December 2010 illustrates that the purpose
of academies
is to undermine national pay and conditions.

7. The Free schools programme will
undermine the role of local education authorities in planning future provision.

8. Many school groups and divisions
have successfully opposed conversion to academy status.

After‘Conference believes that’

ii)add: ‘and national pay & conditions’

v)insert after ‘created...’: ‘diverts
capital and revenue funding away from other local schools and...’

Add new points;

vi) The consultation process set out in the Academies Act is effectively
meaningless and possibly
unlawful as it can be conducted after the decision is made to convert to academy
status.

viii)
That
TUPE arrangements do not constitute effective protection when converting to academy status as
employers can re-organise staffing structures immediately after conversion.

b)‘Urge all school unions groups to meet and pass the Union’s
model motion opposing conversion to
academy status.

c)Add ‘significant,
additional’ before ‘financial...’ and add at the end ‘ and to encourage local divisions
to make significant annual donations to the AAA’.

d) add at end “seek to co-ordinate any action where groups
of schools are seeking conversion.”

Add further new points:

g) Write to the
government seeking (i) a withdrawal of Lord Hill’s letter (ii) a change in the
consultation process set out in the Academies act, so consultation must happen before
any decision and (iii) substantive guarantees that national pay and conditions will be retained for all
teachers;

h)declare a dispute with the government if no satisfactory
response is forthcoming;

i) develop
campaigning initiatives aimed at highlighting the threat to pay and conditions to our members
seeking to involve them in the campaign;

j)consider a
ballot for strike action in defence of national pay and conditions as part of this campaign;

k) consider legal challenges to the process
of academy conversion over issues such as the timing, breadth and scope of
consultation; accuracy of information provided and the
failure to do adequate Equality Impact
Assessments prior to conversion;

l)seek the broadest possible support from other unions for these
initiatives.

Motion 34Curriculum and the standards agenda

Deleteparagraph2and replace with:

Conference recognises
that many of the policies outlined in the Coalition’s White Paper, The
Importance of Teaching will not, as claimed, increase the influence of teachers
over the curriculum, butonly widen
divisions amongst learners as well as reducing their opportunities.

Conference is concerned
in particular at government attempts to:

1)Remodelsecondary education arounda
‘grammar school’ ethos.

2)Prioritise the value and Importance of some
subjects above others through introducingthe
English Baccalaureate and by using derogatory labels like ‘soft’ and ‘hard’.

3)Reduce the status of vocational learning still
further.

4)Focus excessively on the importance of phonics
in primary schools, at the expense of a balanced
approach to the teaching of reading

5)Emphasise the significance of ‘British’ history
at the expense of all other.

Add new paragraph and renumber
subsequently:

Conference condemns
proposed changes to teacher training as ill thought out, and an insult to
teacher professionalism, and to our colleagues in UCU who are responsible for
teacher education. They are reliant on a view of teachers as ‘practitioners’
who have no need to have a wider view of pedagogy, or the education system, but
can train ‘on the job’. In addition, they will add to the pressures on teachers
in school, who will be expected to support prospective teachers in addition to
their usual workload.

Conference further notes
that the most successful education systems in the world, such as in Finland, value
teacher education.

Add to ii which reflects the
diverse world in which we live".

Add new points f, g and
h in Conference instructs the executive to:

f. Publicly oppose the government’s
proposals for teacher training, and draw attention to the practice in successful education systems of educating
teachers extensively;

g. Support teachers in refusing to
undertake additional duties connected with teacher training;

h."consult with union advisory groups about
ways to invigorate the curriculum".

Motion
38 The class of 2011

Add
new paragraphs:

Conference
is alarmedthatyouth unemployment continues to riseand that there could be 1 million young
people seeking work bythe end of
thesummer;with many more having given up and being
classified as‘economically inactive’.
Conference is extremely concerned that even more young people hoping to attend
university this year will be disappointed.

Conference
condemns the abolition of the Education Maintenance Allowance, and the raising
of tuition fees to £9000 and the accompanying cuts in university funding.Conference recognises that this will lead to
further inequalities in access and also to the reduction of courses and even
the closure of some universities.

Conference
notes the mass opposition of large numbers of students to increases in fees,
cuts and the abolition of EMAs, and congratulates those school, college and
university students who took part in protests against government policy.

Conference
calls upon the national union to support young people in their campaigning for
a better education.

Motion 41 Education Special Needs

Add new paragraph 2 and renumber accordingly:

Conference notes that cuts already undertaken by local authorities and
schools have over-whelmingly hit provision for SEN, both centrally and in
schools, and this is having a negative effect on students who are losing
support they previously enjoyed.

Add new point e:

e. Investigate how action to protect jobs and services in Inclusive
education and SEN can involve all serving members in an LEA, so as to build
more effective action

Motion
47The challenge of Islamophobia

Add
newparagraphs:

Conference reaffirms our
commitment to our multiculturalism and the respect and solidarity it is built
on a cause for pride, and reaffirms our commitment to protecting and
celebrating multiculturalism in our schools .

Conference
condemns David Cameron’s statement made on the 5th February 2011
attacking multicultural society as a failure. His comments were a clear
escalation of Islamophobic rhetoric, and parallel similar attempts to whip up
Islamophobia and attack multiculturalism by French president Sarkozy and German
Chancellor Merkel.

Conference believes that in all
these cases the aim is to use racism to divide and weaken opposition to
austerity measures and have had the effect of strengthening organised racist
and fascist forces.

Conference further notes that the
EDL and other racist and fascist organizations have welcomed David Cameron’s
comments

Amend point b to read:

b)Support a
joint NUT/UCU conference on Tackling Islamophobia and developing multicultural and anti-racist approaches to
the curriculum.

General motions

Motion
on pensions

ITA

1. Welcomes the announcement by the NUT of a definite timetable
for a strike ballot on defending our pensions - with the ballot to be launched
at the NUT Easter conference and the first strike action next term.

2. Welcomes the fact that this ballot will be for discontinuous
action, as we believe more than a one day strike will be needed to win the
pensions battle.

3. Welcomes the fact that discussions are taking place to see if
we can secure agreement with the ATL and NASUWT to also announce strike ballots
on pensions on the same timetable at their respective Easter conferences.

4. Believes that such united action by the main teaching unions
could have an enormous impact - and could also pressure other unions to move towards
strike action in defence of pensions.

5. Further believes however that we cannot afford to delay
beginning the pensions battle any further, and that the desire for unity with
other teaching unions cannot be allowed to push beyond our conference the
announcement of a ballot.

6. Believes that there have already been enough delays, at a time
when the government attacks on pensions are now beginning to come into effect -
such as the change in indexation from the RPI measure of inflation to the CPI measure,
which will cost our members, and many others, thousands of pounds over their
retirement.

7. Therefore agrees to send a copy of this motion to the general
secretary and ask for it to be copied to all executive members, to make our
views clear to them.

8. We believe that a successful strike will require the prospect of
massive united action and for our part that will require our association to set
up as many school based meetings on this issue as possible between now and the
end of the ballot and that this must be a priority for the association
officers.

Cuts in Islington

ITA:

·Fully supports existing Association policy of
being willing to take borough-wide action in the event of any teacher in the
borough being threatened with compulsory redundancy.

·Calls upon the National Union to ballot members
in Islington for discontinuous strike action if the Council refuses to give a
guarantee that no teacher will face compulsory redundancy.

We also agree to campaign against cuts and redundanvies with support
staff colleagues.

FE Cuts

This group
deplores the coalition governments attacks on public services including the
cuts which they are imposing on education.

As well as the
devastation of the HE sector, the cuts in FE will mean that no adults on income
support will be entitled to free education (e.g. women with children under 7,
people with disabilities).

Despite
purporting to be protecting the education of 16-19 year olds, very damaging
cuts are being made in this area as well. The increases in tuition fees, cuts
to EMA and the 70% cut in entitlement support funding is a huge assault on
state education, in particular of working class children, which needs to be
resisted.

We therefore call
upon the national union to launch a vigorous, high profile campaign of
action against increases in tuition fees, cuts to EMA and the cut in
entitlement support funding.

We encourage the
NUT to actively promote an alternative to the cuts agenda.

We also resolve
to resist the impact of the cuts on the education of students and the
working conditions of teachers by agreeing a position of

No compulsory
redundancies

No increase in
contact time above 22.5 hours per week

We will also campaign against any change that has a
deleterious effect on student education or workload.

In addition, we
agree to support our colleagues in Unison in defending provision to
young people and job security including careers, libraries and the
admin support which enables us to do our job.

We also agree to
support the TUC anti-cuts demonstration on 26th March and to
take the Sixth Form College banner.

We call for a
whole college cross union meeting to discuss the cuts and to campaign
with UCU and Unison against cross college cuts..

Multiculturalism

Islington NUT supports the following
statement from Unite Against Fascism:

We agree to sign it as a branch and
circulate it to our Reps and other interested parties to build maximum support
for it.

We believe David
Cameron’s statement that multiculturalism has failed was a dangerous
declaration of intent. David Cameron's speech was reminiscent of Margaret
Thatcher’s infamous 1978 statement that Britain was “being swamped by alien
cultures”. He has branded Britain’s Muslims as the new “enemy within” in the
same way as Thatcher attacked the miners and trade unions.

David Cameron is attempting to drive a wedge between different communities by
linking Britain’s multicultural society with terrorism and national security.
David Cameron’s speech was made on the same day as the English Defence League
brought its bigotry and violence to the streets of Luton. Mr Cameron’s aim is
simple as it is crude - to deflect the anger against his government’s cuts from
the bankers and onto the Muslim community. The prime minister is aping attacks
by other European leaders like France's Nicolas Sarkozy, who passed legislation
banning the veil, and Angela Merkel, who has also made statements denouncing
multiculturalism in Germany.

We the undersigned
believe that our multicultural society and the respect and solidarity it is
built on is a cause for pride, and reject any moves by this government to
undermine and destroy it.

We must not allow this coalition government to turn the tide back to the days
when it was acceptable, through ignorance and fear, for people with a different
religion, culture or skin colour to be scapegoated and treated as inferior or
outsiders.

Egypt

Islington NUT welcomes the movements for democracy in
Tunisia, Egypt and other countries in the Arab world.

We note

The
unity in action between people of different generations, genders, faiths

The
extraordinary courage of people who had lost their fear of death, defied
intimidation by the Police and paramilitary thugs supporting the old
regime and neutralised the army so that a massacre could not take place

The
widespread self organisation of neighbourhoods and networks

that these movements are being driven not simply
by accumulated frustration at decades of dictatorship: but also economic
pressure on everyone’s living standards, rising prices for food, the
difficulty for many young people to find jobs with youth unemployment
ranging from 25% in Egypt to 45% in Algeria and that this pressure will
continue and increase

that the fall of Mubarak sets the stage for a continuing
confrontation between a self enfranchised mass movement, with free trade
unions breaking loose from the old official regime unions, women’s
movements and a wide range of civil organisations on one side and the
continuing government, staffed by Mubarak’s appointees, backed by the army
and the United States to “manage” the transition by keeping as much
continuity as possible with the previous status quo, on the other.

That there is a parallel struggle going on in Tunisia

We
resolve to support rallies, events, demonstrations called to support these
struggles in the months ahead and circulate material about them to our Reps and
other interested parties
We further endorse the statement below by the Stop the War coalition on the
revolt in Libya.

Stop the War statement on Middle East revolutions

There must be no US or British intervention in Libya: the future
of Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen must be determined by the people of
those countries alone.

The uprisings sweeping the Middle East deserve the
support of all progressive people. They are directed against autocracies which
have denied their people basic rights and the possibility of a decent life.

These autocracies have
also, for the most part, depended on the self-interested support of the big
powers, the USA and Britain first of all. Western governments have prioritised
cheap oil, arms sales and support for Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians
above the rights of the Arab peoples.

The response of the
British government to the events of the last month exemplifies this hypocrisy.
David Cameron has prioritised arms sales to the region. And the clamour to
intervene in Libya has more to do with control of that country’s oil resources
than with support for Libya’s people.

The Conservative-Liberal
Coalition has followed Tony Blair’s lead in seeing the Middle
East entirely through the prism of the interests of BP and British
Aerospace. Any British intervention in the region would be directed to
furthering those interests, not the freedom or democracy which can only present
a challenge to western domination of the region.

Stop the War Coalition
is clear that there must be no US
or British intervention in Libya
or anywhere else in the Middle East under any
pretext whatsoever. Such interference over the last century is the root of the
region’s troubles, and its continuation will solve none of the difficulties
there.

The future of Libya, Egypt,
Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen and all the other states
facing popular uprisings must be determined by the people of those countries
alone. Solidarity with those fighting for their democratic and national freedom
is our obligation.

We can best discharge it by demanding that the government at
long last takes its hands off the Middle East
and its people, leaving them to settle accounts with their own rulers